We won’t charge more for fibre: Orcon
Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett has laid down the gauntlet for New Zealand’s other ISPs, announcing today that Orcon will charge the same amount for fibre internet plans as it currently charges for plans using the current copper network.
That means plans will start at $75 per month for a plan with 30MBps download speed, 10MBps upload speed, and a data cap of 30GB.
Bartlett also announced plans for users who want higher data caps, with an $89 package for 60GB, a $99 package for 100GB, and a $199 package for 1TB, or 1000GB.
http://www.techday.co.nz/netguide/news/we-wont-charge-more-for-fibre-orcon/22155/6/
Cassini Detects Hint of Fresh Air at Dione
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has “sniffed” molecular oxygen ions around Saturn’s icy moon Dione for the first time, confirming the presence of a very tenuous atmosphere. The oxygen ions are quite sparse – one for every 0.67 cubic inches of space (one for every 11 cubic centimeters of space) or about 2,550 per cubic foot (90,000 per cubic meter) – show that Dione has an extremely thin neutral atmosphere.
At the Dione surface, this atmosphere would only be as dense as Earth’s atmosphere 300 miles (480 kilometers) above the surface. The detection of this faint atmosphere, known as an exosphere, is described in a recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20120302.html
Where is Curiosity?
After its successful launch on Nov. 26, 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover is in its Cruise Phase on its way to Mars! The trip from Earth to Mars will take about 36 weeks (254 days).
Cruise ends when the spacecraft is 45 days from entry into the Martian atmosphere, when the Approach Phase begins.
Follow Curiosity on her journey, through these simulated views, which are updated daily.
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/
Sunspot 1429 Not Done Yet – Releases 2 More M-Class Flares
On March 10, 2012, the sun released another two M-class flares. One, rated as an M5.4, peaked at 12:27 AM EST. The second, rated as an M 8.4, peaked at 12:44 PM EST.
These two flares came from the same Active Region (AR) on the sun, designated number 1429, that has already produced three X-class and numerous M-class flares over the past week.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News030812-M6.3flare.html
